Children: Disadvantaged

(asked on 13th May 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many times (a) he and (b) Minister and officials of his Department have met (i) children in care and (ii) children identified as being in need in the last six months.


Answered by
Vicky Ford Portrait
Vicky Ford
This question was answered on 22nd May 2020

As both my right hon. Friends, the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer have made clear, the government will do whatever it takes to support people affected by COVID-19.

Our latest guidance on vulnerable children is set out below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-schools-and-other-educational-settings.

These are rapidly developing circumstances; we continue to keep the situation under review and will keep Parliament updated accordingly.

Ministers and officials meet regularly with children in care and their representatives, as well as with those that represent children in need.

Officials and ministers are also in regular contact with colleagues from other departments. These departments, including the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and associated agencies, have provided a range of guidance for relevant staff and practitioners and continue to provide updates as needed.

The department, along with the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, has put out a communication to safeguarding partnerships and officials from the department, the Home Office and DHSC are in weekly contact with representatives from the safeguarding partnerships to work with them during the pandemic.

The department has recently launched a new local authority data collection to capture up-to-date information on both the number of referrals to children’s social care and children starting to be looked after. We are currently reviewing the responses to the survey and analysing the data. The findings will inform the department’s on-going support to local authorities in meeting the needs of vulnerable children and families.

Following temporary amendments to The Adoption and Children (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations, the department has published comprehensive guidance for children’s social care services. This is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-childrens-social-care-services.

Reticulating Splines